Momentary Marriage (32 page)

As much as a man could promise with a look, he promised. This wasn’t over. It couldn’t be over.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Kelsey unlocked her office door and the scent of roses surrounded her. Vases of the flowers were everywhere—on her desk, on the file cabinets, on the floor. Every corner of the room was filled with roses, dozens and dozens of them in every color until the small space looked like a floral stall at an open-air market.

The smell of foliage and refrigerated petals was over-powering.

Her heart thudding, Kelsey stepped into the room, carefully shutting the door behind her. This would draw comments from her co-workers and she just didn’t want to hear them yet.

As romantic gestures went, a room full of flowers tended to make a woman’s knees go weak.

Crossing the room, she lifted the single rose lying in the seat of her desk chair. A folded piece of paper lie beneath the solitary bloom. She lifted the blood-red thing to her face, the petals soft against her cheeks. Closing her eyes as tears welled, she held it cradled there.

If only. If only it were true. If she could only believe in all the implications.

The folded sheet of paper crackled in her hand as she opened it, wiping the back of a hand across her eyes.

This is crazy,
he’d written.
I miss you. Can’t you give our arrangement another chance? We agreed to a year. Come home.

Disappointment threatened to choke her. It smelled of roses and terror.

He said nothing of love, nothing more than “come back.” She had an office full of man’s favorite way to get around a woman. More manipulation. And typically, he’d done it big.

Dropping the flower into the trash, Kelsey sank into her chair. He wanted her to come back, wanted her in his bed, his life…for the rest of the year he had coming.

Living with him and knowing the end would come would be like going willingly into the mouth of hell. She couldn’t.

*
**

“Doug proposed?” Kelsey gasped, surprise pushing back the gray misery surrounding her. “Right there in the street?”

“Yes,” her sister sighed, her eyes misting over at the memory. “I’d given up on him. Truly, I’d even accepted a date with that guy who works two floors down.”

“The blonde guy who’s always riding the elevators,” Kelsey asked, momentarily distracted from her sister’s astounding news.

“Yes.” Amy nodded and giggled. “Then Doug showed up outside of Pietro’s and kept trying to talk to me.”

“He proposed.” Kelsey felt stunned at the wonderful turn of events. In the face of her own devastating emotional turmoil, at least her sister’s life had taken a turn for the better.  “Wow. So, I guess Doug’s not the idiot we’d decided he was?”

“I don’t know,” Amy responded happily, “but regardless, he’s my idiot now.”

“And you’re not mad at me anymore?” Kelsey ventured hopefully. Having her sister so withdrawn and angry had made the past few days even more horrible. Her heart was mangled inside and she couldn’t even turn to Amy.

“No. I never was really mad
at
you. I was just furious with everything and you got tangled up in it.” Her sister smiled at her. “Doug told me you asked him to marry you—“

“What?” Kelsey gasped. “I did not!”

“Well, later he admitted that you’d just said you
should have
married him instead of falling in love with Jared,” Amy conceded. “But that was enough. That was what did the trick.”

“You’re kidding.” Confused, Kelsey stared at her sister.

“Nope. It was like, suddenly the thing he thought he’d always wanted was in sight and he realized he didn’t really want you,” Amy concluded beatifically. “No offense.”

“None taken,” Kelsey responded immediately. “That’s what did the trick? Me making a stupid, miserable comment about marrying him? I was talking about the mistake I made in marrying Jared.”

“Well,” Amy said, blowing on her ever present cup of coffee, “that’s what did the trick. Combined, of course, with his misery at not seeing me.”

“Of course.” Kelsey smiled at her sister, her own misery lessening some. “So you’re getting married next week? That’s incredibly fast. You’re sure you don’t want the big church ceremony thing?”

“Yes. We want to get married as quickly as possible. Doug says he’s wasted too much time already,” Amy told her smugly.

“Speaking as the woman who was the focus of his wasted time,” Kelsey said dryly, “I agree.”

“Kels,” Amy said after a moment. “I’m thinking of inviting Dad to the wedding.”

“Dad?” Kelsey looked at her blankly. “Our father, you mean?”

“Yes,” Amy laughed. “Our father.”

Kelsey hesitated, remembering the stranger she’d gone to the investment seminar to see. She still couldn’t reach out to him herself, couldn’t put aside the anger that had grown in her since seeing him. “Of course, it’s up to you, but he’s never chosen to be a part of our lives.”

“I know,” Amy said wryly. “I’m not doing something so silly as asking him to walk me down the aisle. I’ll do that like you did—walk alone. I don’t know. I’m just considering inviting him. But I kind of feel like it’s time to heal the breach.”

“That’s not something you can do alone if he’s not willing,” Kelsey warned her, not sure how she felt about her sister’s overture toward the man who abandoned them both.

“No. But maybe he’s ready to make amends and just doesn’t know how to find us,” Amy paused. “Maybe he made a mistake a long time ago and doesn’t know how to mend it.”

“That would certainly be consistent with the way the rest of us in this family work,” Kelsey said heavily, her own errors in judgment returning to mind. She’d known Jared would be dangerous to her heart, but she’d married him anyway. The end result—Amy’s happiness—was wonderful, but in the meantime, Kelsey knew she’d never be the same woman. She wondered if she’d ever find a way to stop missing Jared. Ever wake up and not long for his arms around her.

The scent of roses still lingered in the room despite her ruthlessly removing every bouquet, every last fluttering rose petal.

“Sis?” Amy blew on her coffee again, her gaze downward. “Are you sure marrying Jared was a mistake?”

The question hung in the air between them for a long moment before Kelsey could muster the strength to respond. “Yes. I’m afraid it’s beginning to look like I’m more like Mother than I’d realized.”

“That’s absolutely not true,” Amy disagreed flatly, setting her coffee cup down. “Just completely not true.”

Kelsey shrugged, trying to keep the misery out of her expression. “Whatever. I’m married and separated in less than a month.”

“But should you be? Separated, I mean?” Amy’s gaze searched her face.

“I…I think so,” Kelsey groped for a way to explain her fears. She loved Jared and not being with him was like dying inside, but each day they had contact the bond between them seemed to grow stronger. If she didn’t cut it now, the eventual, inevitable loss would kill her.

Loving him and living with him would be like giving him carte blanche to trample on her heart. When he left—which she knew would happen—what would be left of her?

Kelsey opened her mouth to try and explain to her sister, “He doesn’t really love me. I can’t trust him.”

“That can’t be true,” Amy said instantly. “I’ve seen the way he looks at you.”

Shaking her head, Kelsey said, “He—Jared is used to getting what he wants. He’s ruthless, at times, and manipulative. I-I just can’t trust him to—to always be there for me.”

Covering her face with her hands as if to hold the tears inside, Kelsey stopped.

Amy got out of her chair and came around the desk to hug her. “I think you’re wrong. He does love you, even if he’s not perfect. But I know you have to sort it out yourself. Remember, I love you, no matter what.”

“Yes,” Kelsey agreed, hugging her back, tears swimming in her eyes at her sister’s support.

“Of course, the roses had to have made an impact,” Amy said, glancing at her sister for confirmation. “Didn’t you keep any of them?”

“No.” Her throat felt tight.

“Well, the women in the office thank you, even if Jared didn’t mean for them to get his peace offering.”

“I’m glad they like them,” Kelsey said bleakly. In other circumstances, she’d have been enchanted herself. Roses might not be her very favorite flower, but they weren’t chopped liver, either.

“So if the flowers didn’t do the trick, what will?” her sister asked.

“Nothing. It’s over.”
“Too bad. Jared’s been such a good friend.” Amy shook her head, her face sad.

Kelsey looked at her, puzzled at the comment. “Jared’s been a good friend…to you?”

“Yes, I can’t get over how right he was about Doug,” Amy said, taking another sip.

“In what way?” Kelsey heard the foreboding in her own voice. When had Jared ever said anything to her sister about Doug?

Amy shook her head and laughed. “When Jared first offered me that job in
London
, I thought he was nuts. I was convinced that Doug really wouldn’t care if I left town. But Jared said he just needed a little push and that my leaving would do the trick. Of course, I didn’t need to leave because you guys got married.”

Kelsey stared at her sister in shock. “
Jared
offered you the job in
London
? Actually encouraged you to move?”

“Sure,” Amy said, surprise in her voice. “And then you guys got engaged and I didn’t need to move. I wondered if my talking about moving away kind of made you and Jared go public with your relationship. Maybe, it nudged you into making a commitment.”

“Something like that,” Kelsey admitted, feeling dazed. For a moment, she had an urge to confess the truth to Amy about her marriage. But she knew she couldn’t. Not now when she was so miserably unhappy. Amy would feel responsible and her guilt might taint the very happiness Kelsey had bought for her.

“Anyway,” Amy said, “I think Jared really loves you, even if he is less than perfect, and maybe you ought to give him another chance. Try to work things out.”

“Jared was the person getting the job in London,” Kelsey repeated slowly, the roaring in her ears growing louder.

“Yes. Didn’t he tell you?”

“No,” Kelsey said, her mind whirling, her heart thudding painfully in her chest. All this time, she’d been working to keep her sister close by and…Jared had been enticing her away?

The bastard! How could he have done such a cruel thing?
She’d told him how she felt about Amy leaving, yet he’d still left his offer open.

Amy laughed. “Well, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised he didn’t say anything. Jared knows how to keep his own counsel.”

Outrage spilled through Kelsey, sparking through her mind like the spray of current from an electrical short.

Jared had prompted Amy to shake Doug up? Had actually offered her a job overseas and kept the fact a secret all this time?

She couldn’t believe it. Couldn’t imagine why he’d urge her sister to do something so drastic, something so hurtful to Kelsey as suggesting Amy leave the continent. Why would he have done it?

Because he’d been up to something, her mind whispered. She loved him and he was simply playing a game. Manipulating, maneuvering. Managing people’s lives without their consent. Jared liked controlling people.

“Listen,” Amy said, getting up. “I’ve got to get back to my desk. I just wanted to tell you I’m engaged! We’re going to get the ring this afternoon.”

“I’m glad,” Kelsey said numbly as her sister left the office. “Really glad. See you later.”

God, she couldn’t think! What did it mean? Jared had prompted Amy to leave Doug. Amy had then prompted her to…do something to set Doug free. She then had determined to marry someone…and Jared stepped into the breach.

Surely, not even Jared could contrive to make all that happen. He had no way of knowing she’d decide to get married.

And even if he’d hoped for that, or hoped that her concern about Doug might make her more receptive to his proposal, why would the man do such a thing?

We could…have kids,
his voice said casually from her memory. Jared’s words floated in her head for a second. Would he? Would any man go so far to get a woman to have his children? He was a very wealthy man. He could buy a raft of women willing to have a child for him.

He’d denied trying to trick her into having a child. Denied so convincingly that he’d been trying to get her pregnant. But if that wasn’t his motive, what was? Could he simply have some sort of egomaniacal need to control others?

Had he considered her some sort of challenge, a conquest to be made? Why else would he have behaved so strangely? Working to get her sister to confront Doug. Taking Kelsey up on her declaration of needing a husband. Why would a man do those things?

Unless he was fundamentally incapable of taking the straight forward path.

If he’d had a physical attraction to her, why hadn’t he just come right out with it and asked her on a date?

None of it made any sense, but Amy’s revelation left Kelsey feeling furious and sick inside. All along, she’d sensed there were things he was keeping hidden from her, lying to her.